Which sci-fi author would you like to meet?

Seriously, here's your chance to pick which science fiction author you would like to see at one of our forthcoming UBM events.

Seriously, here's your chance to tell me which science fiction author you would like to see at one of our forthcoming UBM events (I'm hoping for Design West 2013, because I'm going to be there giving presentations myself). And how did this all come about? Well...

I just received an email from Karen Field, who is the senior vice president of content for UBM Electronics and the supreme commander of all she surveys ("All hail the supreme commander!")

It seems that Karen ("Fear her wrath!") has so much free time on her hands that she's been reading my blogs on science fiction and fantasy books. Well, you can only imagine my surprise (I didn’t realize that anyone read my blogs :-)

Anyway, in her message to me, Karen ("Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!") spake as follows:

"Max, can you ask your readers which science fiction writer they would like to see most as a keynote at one of our events? Living, of course!"

The "Living, of course!" portion of this communication gave me pause for thought. Until now I had assumed that all of my readers showed at least some signs of life. And then I realized that Karen was referring to the science fiction author. Well, I don’t know about you, but I would be hard-pushed to pick a single dead science fiction author that I would like to see giving a keynote presentation at a forthcoming UBM event, so I certainly agree that selecting a living member from their number would be the preferred approach.

All joking aside, Karen ("May the radiance of her smile continue to shine upon us and light our humble lives") is being serious here. If we can reach a consensus as to whom we would like to see, then Karen ("May she rule for 1,000 years!") will track him or her down to their lair and hound the little scamp until they submit to her will (as must we all) and agree to give the keynote at the designated event.

To be honest, this has put me in a bit of a quandary, because there are so many science fiction authors I would like to see and hear "in the flesh" as it were.

Hmmm, I shall have to ponder this deeply. In the meantime, what say you? Who would you choose?

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Without a doubt...Greg Bear. Runs or has run with many Grand Masters of Sci-Fi including Heinlein, Clarke and Asimov. He wrote a Foundation book for goodness sake...how many get chosen to do that?
Has written Halo, Star Trek AND Star Wars books and wrote one of the absolute hands down BEST hard sci-fi books of all time...EON (The Way is mind blowing!!!) Nebula award winner...nominated numerous times for Clark, Hugo and other prestigious awards...this guy ROCKS sci-fi. If you haven't picked up a Greg Bear book...run to your local laptop and hammer Amazon for one or forty.
Could easily see him being designated a Grand Master someday.

Although I won't be able to attend, I would vote for Jack Chalker or Orson Scott Card.
Actually, since I am an old coot, I really would prefer Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clark. Impossible, I know, unless one of the time travel experts could get them there.
BTW, I am currently reading Winter's Tale at your recommendation.